SAN FRANCISCO — Apple on Monday introduced a new version of its mobile operating system for iPhones and iPads that will bring a host of new features, including maps that let users zoom over a three-dimensional image of a city.
The new map software replaces Google data with Apple’s own mapping system, a sign that Apple is further distancing itself from the company that it once considered a close partner. Apple also overhauled its line of Mac computers.
“We are so proud of these products, as they’re perfect examples of what Apple does best,” said Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, introducing the new products on the opening day of the company’s developer conference — a yearly event where Apple shows off its works-in-progress to entice software developers to continue creating software that runs on Apple’s devices. This was the first developer conference that Apple has held since the death of its cofounder and former chief executive, Steve Jobs, in October.
Apple updated its ultralight MacBook Air laptop with a faster microprocessor and an improved camera. But it made the boldest changes in its computer line to its high-end laptop computer, the MacBook Pro, which is now one-quarter thinner than the older model and has a high-resolution “retina display” akin to the screen on new iPads and iPhones. Apple was able to slim down the laptop, which will start at $2,200 for a model with a 15.4-inch screen, by eliminating its DVD drive and getting rid of its hard drive in favor of a faster form of storage technology called flash.
Apple’s move to drop the DVD drive echoes past moves by the company to drop technologies in its machines, like floppy-disk drives, that it viewed as outmoded, even though some consumers grumbled about the changes initially.
The new mapping system for Apple’s mobile devices will provide drivers with turn-by-turn directions, a feature that has long been available for free in smartphones running the competing Android operating system from Google. Apple created the 3-D view in its maps service, called Flyover, by shooting aerial photographs.
Since the introduction of the iPhone, Apple has relied on Google’s mapping data to drive the maps software included on the iPhone. Its abandonment of Google Maps underscores the heightening tension between the two companies.
Although they were once collaborators, their relationship gradually eroded after Google released Android, its mobile operating system that competes with the iPhone.
To catch up with Google on creating a mapping database, Apple acquired three mapping companies over the past three years: Placebase, Poly9, and C3 Technologies. It is also using map data from TomTom, a Dutch manufacturer.
Other new features in the new mobile operating system, iOS 6, include improvements to Siri, the voice-activated virtual assistant in the latest iPhone. While Siri initially worked with a limited set of Internet services — allowing users to, say, search for restaurants through Yelp — it will now let them use voice commands to search for sports statistics, make restaurant reservations using OpenTable, and look up showtimes for movies.
Siri also has a new function, Eyes Free, that will allow car drivers to communicate with it by pushing a button on their car steering wheels. General Motors, BMW, and Toyota are among the auto manufacturers who have agreed to put such a button in their vehicles.
Apple also said it reached an agreement with Facebook that more deeply weaves the social network into Apple’s devices, allowing people to share photos to Facebook, for example, without having to open a separate Facebook app.